Ellen Neel, the granddaughter of Charlie James and the niece of Mungo Martin, was a pioneer female Northwest Coast artist – the first woman to become a professional totem pole carver and a true entrepreneur. Neel began carving in her home community of Alert Bay and moved to Vancouver with her family, establishing Totem Art Studios in Stanley Park where she worked with her children (her husband having been incapacitated by a stroke) [1]. The family business turned out to be a great success. In 1950 Neel was commissioned by Vancouver’s Totemland Society to design a model pole that would help promote tourism in British Columbia. The original model pole was two feet high and depicted a thunderbird atop an egg-shaped globe delineating the southern B.C. coastline, atop a human figure. Copies by the artist were given to visiting dignitaries, and Neel produced numerous additional copies for sale to tourists as well. As this fine version from 1959 shows, Neel retained the format of the original but freely experimented with colours and details over the years.

References: See an illustration of Neel’s original Totemland Pole in Aldona Jonaitis, Art of the Northwest Coast (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006), fig. 8.6. See the carver profile on Ellen Neel (with illustrations of several poles) in Michael D. Hall and Pat Glascock, Carvings and Commerce: Model Totem Poles 1880-2010 (Saskatoon: Mendel Art Gallery / Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011), pp. 130-132.